Cleaning Off a Spot for Holiness

“For God hath not called us
unto uncleanness,
but unto holiness.”
1 Thessalonians 4:7

As I’m sure you well know, keeping things clean is a life-long endeavor. Whether it’s our hearts, heads or homes, cleanliness is often evasive and hard to maintain. It seems that the more cleaning we do the more cleaning needs to be done. It’s a vicious cycle. Make a mess. Clean it up. Make a mess again. Clean it up again, and on and on it goes. Dirt is everywhere. Dust shows up even when no one is home (which, by the way, I find very puzzling and a little more than disturbing and annoying). Uncleanness sneaks into our lives with stealth subtlety—sometimes invited and self-inflicted, and, at other times, without us noticing, it’s permeated our being and spaces. Nonetheless, God makes it pretty clear in His Word that no matter how the dirt comes into our lives He doesn’t want it to stay there. In fact, He not only wants us to clean out the uncleanness, He calls for us to replace it with holiness.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I’ve been thinking these days, holding in my heart and storing in my home. And, I’ve learned that my home has too much stuff, my head is heavy and my heart is carrying dirty and depressing thoughts of disdain or disrespect toward my situations, our cultural climate and, sadly, even others. None of them have been deeply cleaned out in a while or filled with holy love, kindness, patience and true holiness.

While I may hold my thoughts and words in and behave appropriately and professionally in public, when pushed to my limits, and beyond (with no helpful solutions in sight) my heart carries a whole different attitude than what I show the world. And, I’m ashamed to say that, in my distress, I justify my two-facedness, knowing, all the while, God knows my heart and I can’t hide a thing.

Uncleanliness doesn’t live well with cleanliness or holiness. They mix like oil and water. The Greek definition for holiness refers to it as, “purification, the state of purity and a purifier.” Unclean thoughts or behaviors don’t lead to purity. They can’t coexist. To live holy we must live pure and, oftentimes, that means we have to purify or clean something out to make room for holiness.

Purifying, in the Websters Dictionary, means:

• to clear from material defilement or imperfection
• to free from guilt or moral or ceremonial blemish
• to free from undesirable elements
• to grow or become pure or clean (intransitive verb)

Thoughts and deeds that are disobedient, dishonoring and dirty can’t exist in the presence of holiness. It defiles us and makes us guilty and unclean before God and others. “Uncleanness” in the Greek, comes from impurity—physical or moral.

If we find ourselves mired in the dirt of this world and struggling to live holy lives, it might be time for a little soul searching and cleaning out.

Let’s dig out together…

Cleaning Out Our Hearts

Dust bunnies can hide under the bed, under the couch, behind the dryer, and at the back of the closet, (please don’t ask me how I know) but we can’t hide our unclean hearts from God. God knows it all.

Sadly, I struggle some weeks. On the days my heart goes against what I believe, feel and say, my days may go something like this:

• I say, “I want to follow God’s way.”
  Then, I detour and step into my own path and justify setting my own rules.

• I say, “I want to trust God with my heart.”
  Then, I make decisions based on the frailty of my own heart.

• I say, “I want to keep my heart clean of worldly influences.”
  Then, I let the world’s information and influences
  infiltrate my thoughts, decisions, actions and attitudes.

Even when we think we have things looking good and cleaned off, God knows what is hiding in the crevices and cracks at the bottom of our hearts.

Let’s look at these examples in the New Testament where Jesus clearly knew the thoughts of people’s hearts:

“And Jesus knowing their thoughts said,
Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?”
Matthew 9:4

“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies:”
Matthew 15:19

“But when Jesus perceived their thoughts,
he answering said unto them,
What reason ye in your hearts?”
Luke 5:22

We can’t hide our dust bunnies nor our dirt, unclean thoughts or behaviors.

God knows our hearts and He is ready to help us clean them out. In fact, He loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins and take the punishment for our wrong doing. All we have to do is confess that we are sinners and accept His Son and the sacrifice He made for our sins. It’s our Creator’s gift to us:

“For the wages of sin is death;
but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:23

“Confess your faults one to another,
and pray one for another,
that ye may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.”
James 5:16

Clean hearts make room for holiness and holiness heals the hurts and burdens we carry.

Cleaning Out Our Heads

We all sin, and sometimes that sin gets stuck in our heads. Guilt over our uncleanness can be hard to shake, too. We often want to do right but don’t. Then, we live under the cloud of regret. Sometimes that darkness can make us feel dirty and unclean, even when we’ve stopped the wrong deeds or tried to clean up our mess.
But, we don’t have to suffer under that load. We can come clean with God and others. It’s amazing how much lighter it feels to confess our wrongs. It cleans our hearts and removes the debilitating burden of guilt from our heads to make room for holiness to return. Read these verses slowly…

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
 from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:8-9

Aren’t we grateful for God’s forgiveness and faithfulness? There’s nothing like a clean heart, head and slate to begin a new day.

Cleaning Out Our Homes

Having a God-pleasing, holy home, isn’t about our daily dusting, vacuuming, and decluttering. It’s about how we live within our four walls. When our homes are crowded and tainted from the filth and ungodly behaviors of the world–via, reading materials, phones, computers, conversations, attitudes and action, it’s impossible to live in peace and holiness with God, our families and others.

As believers, our homes should be filled with holiness, hope, and hospitality. That’s why it’s so important that we take inventory of our lives and clear out what doesn’t belong. When we clean off a place for holiness to fill the rooms of our homes, our dust bunnies and dirt will have nowhere to hide.

BRINGING IT HOME